The present invention relates to a rearview mirror provided in the passenger compartment of a vehicle.
In recent years, with the development of intelligent transport systems (ITS), incorporation of an information network into vehicles is now under progress. Together with this trend, vehicles are equipped with a human machine interface (HMI) associated with a variety of information systems. The HMI is located at a location at which a driver can easily operate it, such as near the driver""s seat. For example, in an electronic toll collection system (ETC), a car-equipped ETC is provided near the driver""s seat as an HMI.
Generally, a variety of operation devices, a display, and the like are provided near the driver""s seat. It is therefore sometimes difficult to ensure a space for installing a car-equipped ETC. To address this problem, conventionally, there has been proposed to arrange the car-equipped ETC within a rearview mirror that is provided with multiple functions. In the following, a conventional rearview mirror 51 will be described with reference to FIGS. 7 to 9.
As shown in FIG. 7, the rearview mirror 51 is located between a driver""s seat 54 and a front passenger seat 55 in the passenger compartment 53 of a vehicle 52. As shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, the rearview mirror 51 comprises a case 56 and a mirror portion 57. The mirror portion 57 is fixed to a roof (not shown) of the vehicle 52 to orient substantially rearward. A slot 58, through which an IC card 159 is inserted as a recording medium, is formed in the case 56 at a side facing the driver""s seat (on the right side as viewed in FIGS. 8 and 9).
As shown in FIG. 9, the case 56 contains an interface unit 59 and a data processing unit 60 which make up a car-equipped ETC. The interface unit 59 is provided with a card holder 59a, which is communicated with the slot 58. The card holder 59a is formed such that the IC card 159 can be inserted into or removed from the card holder 59a in a direction substantially parallel with the mirror surface of the mirror portion 57.
The width of the slot 58 is substantially equal to the width of a part of the IC card 159 that is inserted. Thus, the orientation and position of the IC card 159 relative to the slot 58 is limited. In other words, the IC card 159 cannot be inserted into the rearview mirror 51 unless the IC card 159 is precisely aligned with the slot 58.
Also, an optimal position for an operator to insert or remove the IC card 159 into or from the rearview mirror 51 largely varies depending on the physical constitution, the dominant hand, and habit of the operator. Therefore, some operators may not readily insert and remove the IC card 57 into and from the rearview mirror 51.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a rearview mirror that permits the driver to readily insert and remove a thin recording medium.
To achieve the foregoing objective, the present invention provides a rearview mirror. The rearview mirror is located between a driver""s seat and a front passenger""s seat in a front section of the passenger compartment of a vehicle. The rearview mirror includes a housing, a reflector and an interface. The housing includes a front surface facing the driver""s seat, a rear surface at the opposite side of the front surface. The housing has a slot for receiving a recording medium that stores predetermined data. The recording medium has an inserted part. The slot has a width, which is larger than a width of the inserted part. The recording medium is inserted into the slot at an arbitrary position in the width direction of the slot. The reflector is attached to the front surface of the housing. The interface is located in the housing. The interface performs at least one of reading of data from the recording medium and writing of data to the recording medium. The interface includes a detector, a data input/output unit and a moving mechanism. The detector detects insertion of the recording medium into the slot. The data input/output unit swaps data with the recording medium. The moving mechanism moves one of the data input/output unit and the recording medium to a position where the data input/output unit faces the recording medium.
Other aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, illustrating by way of example the principles of the invention.